Sunday, December 21, 2014

The article I wrote about two weeks ago on new words
that have been added to the lexical pantheon of the English language elicited
tremendous interest from my readers—at least judging by the several
enthusiastic emails I have received in the aftermath of the article’s
publication. Encouraged by this, I have decided to introduce readers to more
new words the Oxford Dictionaries—and other English dictionaries—added to the language
this year.

So here goes:

Acquihire.
This is a noun, and it means “An act or instance of buying out a company
primarily for the skills and expertise of its staff, rather than for the
products or services it supplies.” Usage examples include “the start-ups are
being acquihired in a bid to harvest their talent”; “It's powered by talent
acqhired from a solar-powered drone maker as well as poached from NASA.”

The word is a portmanteau made by joining “acquire”
and “hire.”

Air
punch. This is defined as “An act of thrusting one’s
clenched fist up into the air, typically as a gesture of triumph or elation.”
Example: “the verdict was greeted with cheers and air punches by her family and
friends.”

Amazeballs.
It’s an informal word for “extremely good or impressive; amazing.” Example: “The
atmosphere was nothing special but the food was amazeballs.” Oxford says the
word is the product of a humorous contortion of “amazing.” I frankly don’t see
what lexical void this word fills. I am not confident it won’t be a
lexical flash in the pan.

Anti-vax.
This informal American English adjective is derived from the shortening of
“anti-vaccination.” Oxford Dictionaries defines it as “opposed to vaccination.”
Usage examples are “anti-vax parents,” “Anti-vax sentiments have, in fact, been
around since Edward Jenner first demonstrated the effectiveness of the smallpox
vaccine in the late 18th century.”

The dictionary traces the word’s origins to the
1990s, but it is just now being considered a legitimate word worthy of an entry
in the dictionary. This word would resonate with many northern Nigerians where
“anti-vax” sentiments still remain high.

Binge-watch
(binge-view). This is another informal word that
began life in 1990s America and has become a prominent part of the active
idiolect of contemporary young Americans. It is defined as “Watch multiple
episodes of (a television programme) in rapid succession, typically by means of
DVDs or digital streaming.” Example: “you can binge-watch the entire season
with this set.”

The nominal form of the word is binge-watching or
binge-viewing.

To “binge” is to overindulge in something, usually
food. Older words formed in combination with “binge” are “binge-eat” and
“binge-drink.”

Bro
hug.
This is actually one of my favorites of the new words Oxford welcomed to its
database. It is defined as “a friendly embrace between two men.” The “bro” in
the phrase is the short form of “brother” that has been part of African
American English for years. Another variation of the expression is “man hug.”
Usage example: “they had a little bro hug in front of the cameras.”

The phrase is important, I think, because it helps to denote
that the embrace between two men isn’t homoerotic.

Clickbait.
As a new media scholar, I have been using this word for at least the last five
years. I am glad it’s been finally legitimized for popular usage. Oxford
Dictionaries defines it as “(On the Internet) content whose main purpose is to
attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web
page. Example: “These recent reports of the show’s imminent demise are
hyperbolic clickbait.” Clickbait is the Internet’s equivalent of yellow
journalism.

Clickbait can also be used as a modifier, as in “a
clickbait article,” or “clickbait blog posts.”

Deep
Web.
This is defined as “The part of the World Wide Web that is not discoverable by
means of standard search engines, including password-protected or dynamic pages
and encrypted networks.” Example: “The biggest weakness of the Deep Web is also
its greatest strength: it’s really hard to find anything.”

Doncha
(also dontcha, don'tcha).
The word is derived from the informal contraction of “don’t you.” This looks
like one of those words that will be perpetually stuck informal, colloquial
register, like “gonna,” (going to) or wanna (want to). But the word isn’t new.
It’s been around for years.

Other
New Words You Should Note

Douchebaggery
(n.): obnoxious or contemptible behavior.

E-cig
(n.): another term for electronic cigarette.

Fandom
(n.): the fans of a particular person, team, series, etc., regarded
collectively as a community or subculture.

Fast
follower (n.): a company that quickly imitates the
innovations of its competitors.

5:2
diet
(n.): a diet that involves eating normally for five days out of a seven-day
period and greatly restricting the amount of food eaten on the other two days.

YOLO
(abbrev.): you only live once (expressing the view that one should make the
most of the present moment).

Notable
Words of the Year

Chambers Dictionary and Collins English Dictionary,
two well-regarded dictionaries in Britain, named their words of the year early
in the year. The words have also helped expand and legitimize our
lexical repertoire.

Chambers Dictionary’s word of the year is “overshare.” It defines it as “to be
unacceptably forthcoming with information about one’s personal life.” It can
also mean unsolicited and inappropriate self-disclosure of private, intimate
information with online interlocutors. In addition, it can be used to denote
the disclosure of the private, often embarrassing, information about one’s
ex-lover, with intent to expose them to ridicule.

Chambers calls the word “beautifully British.” But
that’s not accurate. As Michael Quinion of World Wide Words noted, “It’s
neither British nor new, as it was first recorded as teen slang in the US in
the 1990s and appeared in print in the New
York Times as early as 1998.”

Runners-up to “overshare” are “bashtag,” defined as
“a hashtag used for critical or abusive comments” and “digital native,” defined
as “a person who has learned to use computers as a child.”

Collins English Dictionary, for its part, chose “photobomb”
as its word of the year. It means “to intrude into the background of a
photograph without the subject’s knowledge.” This is what Collins wrote to
justify its choice: “The main spike in the Bank of English occurs in early
August 2012 relating to the ‘Queen photobomb’, when an official called Phil
Coates intruded into pictures of the Queen at the opening of the London
Olympics. Since then, recorded usage has doubled every year.

“We had been tracking ‘photobomb’ for a couple of
years but were not sure that it would become widely established. Its vastly
increased prominence in 2014 shows the power of media and sporting events to
publicise a word and bring it into wider use.”

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About Me

Dr. Farooq Kperogi is a professor, journalist, newspaper columnist, author, and blogger based in Greater Atlanta, USA. He received his Ph.D. in communication from Georgia State University's Department of Communication where he taught journalism for 5 years and won the top Ph.D. student prize called the "Outstanding Academic Achievement in Graduate Studies Award." He earned his Master of Science degree in communication (with a minor in English) from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and won the Outstanding Master's Student in Communication Award.

He earned his B.A. in Mass Communication (with minors in English and Political Science) from Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria, where he won the Nigerian Television Authority Prize for the Best Graduating Student.

Dr. Kperogi worked as a reporter and news editor, as a researcher/speech writer at the (Nigerian) President's office, and as a journalism lecturer at Kaduna Polytechnic and Ahmadu Bello University before relocating to the United States.

He was the Managing Editor of the Atlanta Review of Journalism History, a refereed academic journal. He was also Associate Director of Research at Georgia State University's Center for International Media Education (CIME).

He is currently an Associate Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media at the School of Communication and Media, Kennesaw State University, Georgia's fastest-growing and third largest university. (Kennesaw is a suburb of Atlanta). For more than 13 years, he wrote two weekly newspaper columns: "Notes From Atlanta" in the Abuja-based DailyTrust on Saturday (formerly Weekly Trust) and "Politics of Grammar" in the DailyTrust on Sunday (formerly Sunday Trust). From November 2018, his political commentaries appear on the back page of the Nigerian Tribune on Saturday.In April 2014, Dr. Kperogi was honored as the Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Louisiana's Department of Communication. His research has also won international awards, such as the 2016 Top-Rated Research Paper Award at the 17th Symposium on Online Journalism at the University of Texas, Austin, USA.